SOURCE: Nazareth, Peter. Review of The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis, by Wole Soyinka. World Literature Today 71, no. 4 (autumn 1997): 853.

In the following review, Nazareth contends that Soyinka presents a chilling portrayal of contemporary Nigerian politics in The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis.

In March 1997 it was reported in the newspapers that Wole Soyinka had been accused by President Abacha of Nigeria of being a terrorist setting off bombs in Nigeria; Abacha charged him with treason. Soyinka (living outside Nigeria) was reported as saying that this was a death sentence comparable to that imposed on Salman Rushdie. Of course, Soyinka denied the charge.

The Open Sore of a Continent appears to have little to do with literature: it is an expose of the Nigerian crisis and an attack on Abacha. “I do not suggest that...